Transmeta disclosed plans
for “Mobile Linux”, which will support the highly constrained
resources of portable Internet devices and embedded systems. The
company plans to offer its Linux enhancements to the Open Source
community.
(http://www.transmeta.com/)

LinuxDevices.com announced
the results of its third Embedded Linux Poll, which asked
developers to describe an embedded computing application in which
they're planning to use Linux. The poll's results can be viewed at
http://www.linuxdevices.com/polls/.

A new white paper from MontaVista
Software reviews the benefits of Linux to embedded
applications, discusses the alternatives available, and offers a
glimpse of what to expect from embedded Linux in the coming year.
(http://www.mvista.com/)

Corel Corp. entered into an
agreement to acquire up to 30% of start-up OE/ONE.com, a company
founded by a former Corel executive that has developed a sub-$500
Linux-based Internet appliance.
(http://www.corel.com/)

Lineo announced it has begun
shipping Embedix Linux 1.0, the company's embedded Linux
distribution. Embedix is targeted at x86 and PowerPC-based embedded
devices. It requires a minimum of 8MB RAM and 3MB of ROM/Flash
memory and is based on the Linux 2.2 kernel.
(http://www.lineo.com/)

Evidencing significant inroads made by Linux within the U.S.
government, the National Security
Agency (NSA) awarded a contract to Secure Computing
Corp. to develop a robust, highly secure configuration of
Linux.

Lineo, Inc. announced a
major embedded Linux design win in the set-top box market. The
system, to be marketed by Bast, Inc., will go in hotel rooms and
apartment buildings. The initial plan is for 50,000 systems, priced
at $285.
(http://www.lineo.com/)

Touch Dynamics announced an
open-source project to develop KOSIX, an industry-standard public
kiosk terminal operating system based on Linux. KOSIX will offer an
open-source alternative to conventional, proprietary kiosk OSes.
(http://www.touchdynamics.com/)

Red Hat announced
appointment of Michael Tiemann as the company's new Chief Technical
Officer (CTO). Tiemann, co-founder of the recently acquired Cygnus
Solutions, is the principal architect of the EL/IX embedded Linux
standard.
(http://www.redhat.com/)

An interview with Michael Tiemann, Red
Hat Chief Technology Officer, discusses the impact of
Red Hat's acquisition of Cygnus on the embedded Linux market and
the future of the Cygnus EL/IX Embedded Linux API initiative.
(http://www.linuxdevices.com/articles/)

IBM disbanded its Internet
division and redirected its resources toward an aggressive campaign
to promote Linux. As part of this strategy shift, former Internet
division executive Irving Wladawsky-Berger was transferred to the
new IBM Linux group. IBM says it will collaborate with the Linux
open-source community and has dedicated a portion of its web site
to Linux-related information.
(http://www.ibm.com/linux/)

DataViews Corp., a provider
of “human machine interfaces” (HMIs) for factory automation
operator interfaces, announced a Linux version of its high-end HMI
software tool, DataViews. The company claims to be the first
provider of Linux-based HMI tools.

The organizational meeting of a new
Embedded Linux Consortium will be
held at the Embedded Systems Conference in Chicago on March 1. The
non-profit group plans to serve as a trade association for
companies in the embedded and real-time Linux market.
(http://www.linuxdevices.com/forum/)

UC Berkeley announced two
short courses on real-world applications programming, to be offered
this spring in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston. The courses
will emphasize Linux and are entitled “Real-Time Programming for
Embedded Systems” and “32-Bit Real-Time Operating Systems with an
Emphasis on Linux”.
(http://www.berkeley.edu/unex/eng/)

There's a movement afoot to develop Linux-based
“programmable logic controller” (PLC) technology. PLCs are
commonly used in manufacturing and factory automation control
systems. A Linux-PLC web site, mailing list and open-source
software are being created.
(http://www.linuxplc.org/)

FSMLabs released a beta
version 3.0 of RTLinux for “hard real-time” applications. RTLinux
can control machinery while maintaining full Linux compatibility.
The new release, based on the latest Linux 2.3 kernel, offers
improved performance and supports ports to non-x86 architectures.
(http://www.fsmlabs.com/)

Linux received a boost in laboratory and industrial test,
measurement and control with the announcement of comprehensive
Linux support by National
Instruments. The company has assembled Linux-based
instrumentation and control solutions for VME and VXI-based
hardware.
(http://www.ni.com/)

Intel began delivering
prototypes of Itanium, its new 64-bit CPU (formerly code named
Merced). Sources within Intel said the company will shortly
authorize the Trillian group (a team working on Linux for Itanium)
to release the Itanium Linux source code to the Linux developer
community.

MontaVista Software Inc.
released its “Hard Hat Net” CompactPCI backplane networking
package to the GPL open-source community. The move provides
developers with powerful networking options for using Linux and
CompactPCI in telecom, telephony, Internet and other embedded
applications.
(http://www.mvista.com/)

VA Linux Systems introduced
SourceForge, a major open-source
initiative that provides over 700 open-source development projects
with extensive hosting and communication resources. The services
are available at no cost to open-source developers.
(http://sourceforge.net/)

Rick Lehrbaum
(rick@linuxdevices.com) co-founded
Ampro Computers, Inc. in 1983. In 1992, Rick formed the PC/104
Consortium and served as its chairman through January 2000. In
October 1999, Rick turned his attention to embedded software,
founding LinuxDevices.com—“the Embedded Linux Portal”.